Lentil Loaf

This is something I've always been vaguely intrigued by, especially when festivities roll around and vegetarians complain about having nothing to eat but nut loaf. I thought I'd see just what it's like to make a lentil loaf, using my handy copy of Delia's Frugal Food. I was missing half the ingredients so added a couple of beetroot, which made the colour much more cheerful. Served over a pumpkin pilaf with a generous dollop of mango chutney, it was quite decent. I think it's missing the sheer umame-ness of a meat loaf, but it's pretty tasty and certainly keeps well over the week.

Ingredients:

• 110g green split peas
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• a few springs of thyme
• a couple of bay leaves
• 175g whole green or brown lentils
• 600ml vegetable stock
• a large onion
• two carrots
• a couple of small or a large beetroot
• four fat cloves of garlic
• a generous handful of fresh parsley
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• two eggs

Put the split peas and herbs in a saucepan and cover with hot stock; simmer for five minutes; add the lentils and simmer for a further 25-30 minutes, until the lentils are tender (don't worry if there is excess water, you don't need to drain them). Meanwhile, finely chop the onion and fry in a separate pan for a few minutes; dice the carrot and beetroot and add to the pan, and crush in the garlic. Fry for a few minutes until the garlic is fragrant. Shred the parsley and add; remove from the heat. Combine the lentil mixture, vegetable mixture and Worcestershire sauce (off the heat) and stir in the eggs when cool enough not to immediately cook them (<57 C). Taste and season (mine needed around 2tsp salt and a looooong grating of pepper.) Spoon into a well-greased 450g loaf tin, cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Turn out and leave to cool for a minute or two before slicing.

Celery and Lentil Soup

And the prize for 'Most Boring Soup in the World' goes to this recipe, to which I turned only in a desperate attempt to use up a 1kg head of celery that my Most Helpful Husband had bought for 'only a dollar'. With copious amounts of blue cheese, chives and bacon topping, it was just about edible. And it's also the sort of thing you might want, if you were, say, suffering norovirus for a few days and needed something incredibly bland to ease you back into that whole eating thing again. On the plus side, I took a very pretty photo.

Less tasty than it looks.

Tofu, Asparagus, Cucumber and Lentil Salad

Sometimes you just want a meal of really clean, crisp flavours, preferably without any meat or milk. Just delicious, nutritious things which can be cooked quickly. This really fits the bill!

Ingredients:

• a block of firm tofu enough for two (about 350g)
• a cucumber
• two handfuls of puy lentils
• a handful of toasted cashew nuts or peanuts
• a handful of alfalfa or other sprouts
• a handful of cooked asparagus or green beans, cold, sliced
• bright, fresh herbs, like basil, mint, coriander or dill
• juice of a lemon
• olive oil

Cube the tofu and shallow-fry it for a few minutes on each side, until golden and crisp. Meanwhile, boil the lentils - they usually take 20-25 minutes. Cut the cucumber in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds, then cube. Dice the herbs. When the tofu is cooled and the lentils are cooked, drain them and toss everything together, along with the lemon juice and olive oil. Taste for seasoning. You could probably chill this for a day or two, minus the olive oil, but it was devoured quickly at our house!

Red Lentil and Sweet Potato Dhal

I really thought I had recorded this on here before, but I'm amazed to find that I've overlooked it! This is my fast dhal recipe - great as just a lunchtime snack with a bit of rice or bread, or a delicious protein component to any curry-type meal. The fried onion topping can be neglected if you're in a hurry, or replaced with baghar if you're feeling really authentic. I think I came up with this recipe independently, but it closely resembles Nigella Lawson's recipe. Convergent evolution or forgetful emulation? Either way it's delicious :) Like the aubergine curry I served it with, this serves four.

Ingredients:

• one large red sweet potato
• 1 thumb fresh ginger, finely grated
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 2 tsp ground turmeric
• a pinch of chilli flakes
• 250g red lentils
• 300ml hot water
• a small white onion, or half a large white onion

Peel the sweet potato and cut into 1cm dice. Fry in a little vegetable oil with the ginger for five minutes, stirring occasionally, to get a bit of caramelisation. Add the spices and lentils, and fry for a further minute. Pour in the hot water, cover and simmer for half an hour, until the lentils are cooked and the sweet potato has collapsed. You may need to stir and top up the water every so often; the end result should be deliciously thick and spoonable, rather than runny. Season with salt after the lentils are cooked - about 1tsp will be needed.

Meanwhile, peel the onion and finely slice into half-moons. Fry gently in a little vegetable oil for 10-15 minutes, stirring every few minutes, until completely caramelised and just beginning to blacken.

Stir the dhal briskly with a large wooden spoon, or mash roughly with a potato masher, until soft but not pureed. Serve topped with the fried onions.

Pot-roast Pheasant

This is my basic recipe for pot-roasting pheasants; as the hunting season is out at the moment, I used a guinea fowl instead. A crown of duck would also work, or several quail, or of course a small chicken. The method is most useful for small or gamy birds without a thick layer of fat; if roasted, the little birds tend to become dry and tough, while in a pot-roast all the delicious juices are locked in.

I say this is my basic recipe because it is warming and comforting but not especially challenging, either in difficulty or in flavour. I have run excellent experiments with stronger flavours, such as blood orange and anise, or soy and pomegranate molasses, but this recipe is more of a gentle English pot-roast, to be served with a big pile of fluffy mashed potatoes, perhaps adulterated with a little celeriac or parsnip and a dollop of crème fraîche.

Ingredients:

• A brace of (i.e. two) pheasants
• a white onion or leek
• 4 long, fat stems of celery
• a good glass of white wine
• 100g puy or lentilles vertes
• a handful of parsley
• 3 bay leaves

Remove any stray feathers or string from your pheasants and check the giblets have been removed. Heat a scant tbsp of oil in a deep oven-proof casserole and fry the birds on each side over a moderate heat, until the skin turns golden and the meat sears. Remove to a plate. Turn the heat down, roughly chop the onion or leek and add to the pan, with a little more oil if needed. Chop the celery into short lengths and add these to the pan once the onions are soft.

After the vegetables have cooked a little in their own juices, throw in the parsley and bay leaves, then deglaze the pan with the glass of wine. When all the alcohol has evaporated, add in the lentils. Place the pheasants back in the pan, breast-side down, and tip in any escaping juices. Pour over a litre of hot stock or boiling water, or enough to cover the vegetables generously and come up at least halfway on the birds.

Cover with a tight-fitting lid and either simmer on the hob or cook in a 170 C oven for 35 minutes. Uncover, turn over the birds so the breasts are up, and return for 20 further minutes uncovered, or until the legs pull easily away from the birds. Remove the birds and rest a few minutes before jointing into pieces to serve. If you have too much liquid in the pan then it can bubble uncovered on the hob to reduce. Taste and season; it will probably require salt, which cannot be added earlier as it would prevent the lentils from cooking properly. Enjoy the pheasant in deep bowls with mash and the accompanying vegetables and gravy.

Roasted Roots with Puy Lentils

I've had a lovely relaxing weekend, and actually haven't been cooking the main meals. I did pick up my wedding dress in London - then gave it to my sister for safe-keeping until the wedding. After a long walk in the surprising February sunshine, lunch today was reheated laksah, still delicious after the flavours had mellowed together a touch. I'd like to write about another dinner that works well as lunch to reheat: roasted roots with puy lentils.

You can use any mixture of roots here, but I find potatoes always take longer than other roots and tend to be overwhelmed by their stronger flavours, so are better not included. The lentils are also up for substitution: puy lentils are the most delicious and hold their shape after cooking, but the cheaper brown or green varieties also work well here. You can also adapt the herbs and dressing depending on what you have to hand. I like to leave the garlic unpeeled so it roasts without burning; it turns into a delightful squidy savoury burst of flavour, hiding underneath the papery skin. I love the sharp contrast between the smoky garlic and the sweet ruby beetroot.

Ingredients:

• 1 sweet potato
• 2 parsnips
• 3 carrots
• 4 medium beetroot, including stems and leaves
• 1 large leek
• 1/2 large head of garlic
• Small bunch of thyme
• 1 tsp coriander seed
• 1/2 tsp cumin seed
• olive oil
• 200g lentils
• 4 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Preheat the oven to 180 C. Remove the stems and leaves of the beetroot and set aside, discarding the bitter join between the stems and the roots. Scrub or peel the roots, remove any sprouts or odd bits, and chop into largeish bite-sized pieces, about 2-3cm in size. Remove the cloves from the large head of garlic, but do not peel. Put the vegetables and garlic in a roasting tin, or two if needed, making sure the vegetables are in a single layer and not stacked, or those underneath will steam instead of roast. Lightly crush the coriander and cumin in a mortar and pestle, strip the leaves from the thyme, and add to the vegetables. Toss with enough olive oil to give the vegetables a fine coating, about 2tbsp. Roast in the oven for 35-45 minutes or until crisping at the edges and tender on the outside, turning the vegetables about halfway through. Be careful not to break up softer roots like sweet potato.

Meanwhile, cook the lentils according to their packet instructions: I use 4:1 water:lentils, simmering, without salt (adding salt causes the lentil shells to harden before the insides cook through). Halve the leeks lengthwise and wash throughly, then chop into 2cm-wide strips. Remove the leaves from the beetroot stems. Chop the stems into 1cm lengths and sautee with the leeks in a little olive oil or butter over a low heat, until the leeks are soft and just edging golden. Then stir in the beetroot leaves, and switch off the heat; they will cook, like spinach, in mere residual heat.

When the root vegetables and lentils are done, drain the latter, and throw the leek mixture, roots and lentils together in one of the roasting tins. Toss with balsamic vinegar and a splash more olive oil if you like. Season with black pepper and serve! If you're extra-hungry, you can add some chunks of goats cheese, some snippets of grilled streaky bacon, or a few broken-up cooked chestnuts (pictured here). Toasted sunflower or pumpkin seeds would also work deliciously well.